Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Spain and from Philadelphia.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Art of Noise show in London.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1968 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976 at the first Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing The Electric Prunes to the techno kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by Sandy B. All the underground hits.
All Public Enemy tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ronnie Foster record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rod Modell record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Hot Snakes,
the Sonics,
Pierre Henry,
The Monks,
Newcleus,
Intrusion,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Fatback Band,
MC5,
Country Teasers,
Q and Not U,
China Crisis,
Nirvana,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
The Trojans,
Lower 48,
Whodini,
Basic Channel,
Youth Brigade,
Man Parrish,
Tommy Roe,
Section 25,
Rufus Thomas,
Fluxion,
The Human League,
Masters at Work,
The Velvet Underground,
H. Thieme,
Camberwell Now,
Piero Umiliani,
Index,
Peter and Kerry,
Gregory Isaacs,
Letta Mbulu,
Sexual Harrassment,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Crispy Ambulance,
Sam Rivers,
Urselle,
Lee Hazlewood,
Scott Walker,
Zero Boys,
The Shadows of Knight,
Joensuu 1685,
The Gap Band,
Drive Like Jehu,
48th St. Collective,
Don Cherry,
Nation of Ulysses,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Scientists,
Black Bananas,
Judy Mowatt,
Deepchord,
Todd Terry,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Gerry Rafferty,
Slick Rick,
Erasure,
Rapeman,
The Selecter,
Mark Hollis,
James Chance & The Contortions,
the Swans, the Swans, the Swans, the Swans.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.